


Special

by Toki_Blade



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Mecha, psychologically unstable character, slow insanity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-16
Updated: 2014-10-16
Packaged: 2018-02-20 18:51:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2439119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toki_Blade/pseuds/Toki_Blade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You were the best. You are the best. You will always be the best. You're the only one who always wins and doesn't die.</p>
<p>You don't.</p>
<p>Need.</p>
<p>A partner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Special

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anthrop](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthrop/gifts).



> Back when I was being really lazy and procrastinating I was all like 'hey siiissttterrr, you should write a thing for me, because I don't wanna' and then she actually did.

 

You're special.

You know it, she knows it, the whole freaking _army_  knows it.

You can bend all of the elements to your will.

Well, not _all_  of the elements, obviously. Not like, specifically Helium and Argon and Plutonium or whatever. Not 'all the elements' _as the intelligent world knows them_. No, all of the hippy dippy elements they use to _think_  were elements, way back whenever when they were stupid when they thought fire could be an element, because _that_  made sense. But back a thousand years ago, they called it 'bending the elements' and you guess they just never got around to a better name for it.

It suits you. You like thinking you can control all the elements in the known universe, even if it isn't exactly true. You're sure if you were given enough time to try, you could move them all. They'd all see it your way, and they'd move for you. Everyone always sees it your way, because you're always right.

Everyone except her.

You're not the first one who can do what you do, but you're the only one currently, and you're the first one since this war started. You're the first one who's actually put it to the test.

Okay, okay, _fine_  there was that old guy, what, a hundred years ago? that used his so called 'sacred status' to basically end the biggest civil war in history, the guy who got the whole world to finally stop fighting with itself and live in peace.

Fat lot of good that did him when he died and the aliens attacked. You were just a kid back then, living way up north in backwatersville. You were just a kid when one of those things attacked your village, and that was before things like Jaegers existed. You were just a kid, and there was that giant, hideous _thing_ , crushing everything you'd ever known.

So you crushed it back. It was easy. Easier than you thought it'd be. You froze it with Water, you frightened it with Fire, you staggered it with Air, and then you had the Earth swallow it whole. Thinking back, the whole thing was a bit of overkill, but you were just a stupid kid back then. As you are now, just one element would be enough to finish off any one of those things.

Too bad there isn't just one.

Too bad they're getting bigger.

You think it was some Earth city who built the first Jaeger, them and their fancy metals. They built something strong enough that it couldn't be destroyed in the first blow, but the ensuing battle with the alien beast destroyed pretty much the entire surrounding area. Granted, it was still the highest survival rate of any battle, because Earth benders are basically like cockroaches. So freaking hard to kill.

Not that you've tried. Not that you've wanted to, or so you tell your psychyatrist, the one they make you have as long as you're piloting a Jaeger.

Now, most of the battles are fought in the water, because that keeps the damage to a minimum. Granted, it kills sea life and pollutes water, but for even really bad Water benders, it's a trivial task to purify water.

Not that you care. Not that you care about anything really. Well, Jaegers are kind of cool. And you always did like being the best at everything. That was always fun. And hell if you weren't the best Jaeger pilot the world had ever seen, even _without_  your bending, which again, was the best in the _world_. You were even better pilot than the stupid Fire Ferret brothers, no matter _what_  the northern hemisphere speculated.

You were the best. You _are_  the best. You will always _be_  the best. You're the only one who always _wins_  and doesn't _die_.

You don't.

Need.

A _partner_.

"Korra, be _reasonable_ -"

"Reasonable? _Reasonable_?" You're probably spitting in Tenzin's face, but quite frankly, he deserves it. "How am I suppose to be _reasonable_  about this! I'm fine! I'm _better_  than fine! I'm the _best_!"

"Korra, please. You know the Jaegers are built for _two_  people, for two _minds_. You can't keep _doing_  this."

"Since when have I needed _people_! Since when have _people_  ever helped _me_! And look at them!" You gesture towards the floor below, with the other Jaegers and the paired pilots, all chatting and happy and _together_ \- " _Look_  at them!" you scream. "I'm better than _all_  of them! I'm better than all of them combined! I don't need-"

"Korra!" Tenzin shouts, and it stuns you momentarily. Tenzin never shouts, not seriously, not like this. "You are _not_  getting back in that god forsaken machine again without _her_!" And you're still halfheartedly gesturing at all the other Jaegers and pilots, and he's gesturing towards that stupid little girl, the one with the pale skin and the dark hair and eyes, the one that's _prettier_  than you. You _know_  she is, but you're _better_  than her, and that's all that matters. You're better than her, and you don't _need_  her, and why is Tenzin trying to replace you?

"The hell I'm not! How is she suppose to help _me_ , huh? Is she some sort of 'magical' Earth bender? Ohh, can this one bend _aliens_? _What_ , Tenzen? How could she possibly help me?!"

Tenzin's face is red and this is about to be a very public screaming match, if it isn't already, but you don't care-

"Actually," says the beautiful, useless _child_  who has no place here, but it's the first she's said to either of you, and you both stop to stare at her for a moment. "I'm not a bender. I'm just a regular person." And she says it so airily, like she doesn't care what you think, she's just stating a fact, like it doesn't _matter_.

You laugh once, startled. You laugh again. And again. And then you can't stop. "Not a _bender_?" you say, laughing, but you might be yelling again. "Not a _bender_! Oh, this is _rich_ , Tenzin. What, you think, 'Oh, Korra can bend all the elements, we can just stick her with a _nonbender_ ' is _that_  what you thought? What is your _plan_ , Tenzin?"

"His plan," the girl says politely, "Is to even out your psyche. I think he just doesn't want you to kill yourself before the week is up."

You're stunned into silence again, and you have a deep dark pit in the center of your stomach. "I wouldn't- I wouldn't _kill_  myself."

Tenzin sighs. "Not on _purpose_ , Korra. You're just- You're getting so _destructive_  lately. You don't stop to think about things. You're not thinking about the risks."

And suddenly, the anger is back. "Oh, so you just think I'll get myself killed, is that it? You think I'm getting _cocky_? You think I'm not the _best_?"

"I _know_  you're the best, Korra, I just-"

"No," you say. " _No_. I don't care what you have to say. I'm _done_."

So you storm out. You make the door collapse on itself as you leave so they can't follow you.

____

You don't know why Tenzin thinks you need a partner. You're _fine_  without one. You don't really even _use_  the Jaeger unless you have to. Or unless you're bored. Sometimes there just aren't very many opponents so you feel like jumping on their heads with your giant robot.

The engineers really don't approve of this. You do this thing where you make the Jaeger run as fast as you can, and then you use the Earth to give it a boost basically, and you use Fire to accelerate the engine (which, yeah, kind of breaks some things, but it's _fine_  they always _fix_  it), and then you use Air to give yourself a lift and to make it so you land where you need to.

And crunch. It kind of sounds like crunching peanuts, except _better_. You really like peanuts. Well, you like breaking peanuts open, you don't really like eating them.

Water benders typically make the best pilots, since, you know, fighting in water and all. They can make their own currents and use them to throw off the aliens, or to make themselves faster. Earth benders aren't half bad; they can use the Earth to give themselves a boost or if they're really good, crush the legs of their opponents. You haven't seen too many good Earth benders, and they almost always get stuck with Fire benders, so they usually die early.

You think it's hilarious that a hundred years ago, the Fire benders nearly took over the world. They're pretty much useless now. They can't do fire on a big enough scale to make a dent.

You can.

The Jaeger is basically just your tower so you can see the fight better, so you can look down on the ugly aliens like the disgusting, weak bugs they are. You can take out a small one, or even a medium sized one, all by yourself, no help included.

With the Jaeger you can take out a whole army of them. Nobody else can do it; you don't know why.

But you can.

The Jaeger is basically a mind link, and when you're connected, when you're hooked up, it's body is your body. The elements you channel go through it, and it's limbs are your limbs. You can raise your arm to raise a tidal wave- but it's not just _your_  arm you're moving, it's the Jaeger's, and so you're lifting your arm and the Jaeger's arm, and you're making a tidal wave, and the Jaeger is making an even _bigger_  tidal wave, and _nothing_  can stand in your way.

Nothing.

You're not going crazy, you're fine. You're more than fine.

You're the most powerful thing on the planet.

No.

You're the most powerful thing in the universe.

( _Probably_. You're _probably_  the most powerful thing in the universe, but all you really have to go off of are those nasty giant bugs and the rest of humanity, and with how quickly those nasty giant bugs brought your entire civilization to it's knees, that makes your kind _worse_  than insects. You're not concieted. There could possibly be something else out in the universe that's stronger than you. The niverse is pretty big, theoretically.)

(You just haven't been able to find a thing capable of killing you yet.)

You don't know why they're trying to force a partner on you. You don't- It'd make you useless. You wouldn't be the only one moving the Jaeger's arm, and if they put a nonbender in there with you, you don't know what would happen. Maybe it'd just get really hard to bend, because you'd have to channel through someone with no- whatever, bending points. You couldn't even imagine being like that, but when you do, you imagine it's a lot like being dead. You can't feel anything, you're not _moved_  by anything, and the elements can't hear you no matter how hard you scream, and you can't hear the elements. You can't imagine it. You can't imagine how terrible that would be. Because worst case scenario, you wouldn't be able to do _anything_. Because you'd have to go through _her_  first, you'd just be completely blocked.

Or maybe you've become too much of a liability. Maybe they're trying to replace you. Maybe by putting you with someone who's completely a blank slate, by forcing her into your _mind_ , she'd somehow learn what you know, become who you are, but better, stronger.

They all seem to like her more, anyway. But no, that's not possible. It doesn't _work_  that way. You're _special_.

You're special.

____

**  
  
**


End file.
